Rod Rigole is one of Blizzard's senior attorneys and I do not believe he would be dealing directly with customers, I'm pretty sure the company wouldn't even allow that nor would he even agree to even if it were allowed.

He has absolutely zero control over player accounts and I'm suprised he didn't just tell you to bugger off. Given that he "looked into it for you" is a display of going above and beyond his duties to resolve your problem, and was even kind enough to tell you that your course of action will only lead you to dissapointment. How you interpret that is entirely up to you... but he was only informing you in a friendly mannor that your aggression will get you nowhere.

This is fake. You don't get banned for buying stuff from a bot. (Anyone who buys ore or herbs would be banned, then.)
And its not like buying 40 stacks of ore from one guy is suspicious. So... yeah, I don't believe OP.

If you buy it for 1 gold per stack you might get a warning, because you should know it's suspicious.

On the other hand:Not a single company in the world will connect a random customer to the head office lawyer.
1/10! Better luck next time.

So, reading this post prompted me to read the EULA for the first time... seems to be pretty bias toward Blizzard, but that is obviously intended for cases like this. Two things really worth mentioning are: 1)
"THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED, NOT SOLD." ...(in caps, first sentince) 2) "Blizzard may terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason or no reason." .....(under the topic "Termination." about half way thru).

i wonder how many accounts blizzard has mistakenly banned and refused to investigate, 99% of people probably dont post on forums when blizzard shits on them.

i know a few friends where something like this happened to them they called blizzard and explained it *poof* accounts back. i think alot of people who come on here and say "I WAS BANNED FOR NO REASON AT ALL" either did something and arent telling us or simply havent called blizz and just posted something on the forums.

"I was a normal baby for 30 seconds, then ninjas stole my mamma" - Deadpool
"so what do we do?" "well jack, you stand there and say 'gee rocket raccoon I'm so glad you brought that Unfeasibly large cannon with you..' and i go like this BRAKKA BRAKKA BRAKKA" - Rocket Raccoon

But that doesn't really happen, at least not nearly as often as forum haters like to claim. Blizzard doesn't just go around flipping kill-switches at random, the very idea of that is stupid and completely at odds with a profitable company. Likewise, Blizzard cannot afford the time to go around and "target" people with trumped up charges just to close the accounts of people they don't like. Blizzards' time is to expensive for that kind of waste, and that scenario exists only in the minds of butt-hurt players who got caught cheating and/or breaking the terms of service one way or another and need to construct some fantasy explanation where they are the victims of some evil corporate entity, instead of owning up to the fact that they just got what they had coming.

sometimes i like to pretend that every once in a while on a blue moon one of those people who are like "TEH GAIME SUCKS NAO EVEREHTHANG WUS BETTA IN BC YOU ALL SUCK BLAH BLAH BLAH" manages to piss off one of the more higher up gms and they say "flip teh switch O-O" BOOM banhammer

"I was a normal baby for 30 seconds, then ninjas stole my mamma" - Deadpool
"so what do we do?" "well jack, you stand there and say 'gee rocket raccoon I'm so glad you brought that Unfeasibly large cannon with you..' and i go like this BRAKKA BRAKKA BRAKKA" - Rocket Raccoon

sometimes i like to pretend that every once in a while on a blue moon one of those people who are like "TEH GAIME SUCKS NAO EVEREHTHANG WUS BETTA IN BC YOU ALL SUCK BLAH BLAH BLAH" manages to piss off one of the more higher up gms and they say "flip teh switch O-O" BOOM banhammer

A man must be allowed to dream right? I have a dream where...haters are silent....writhe in their own hate and live with it. Forums are cleansed of their hate and full of purity.

Most people are ignorant of the rights they hold. Most players still have not read the EULA. Most don't know that if you have any issue with Blizzard and it is not handled to your satisfaction, you have legal rights at your disposal. All it took was one call to Activision/Blizzard and asked for the Legal Department. I received a return call from Rod Rigole with in 1hour. Per the EULA you must inform Blizzard's Legal Department and give notice to seek "Informal Negotiations". These can not last more than 30days. If you still haven't reached an amicable resolution, the next step is "Binding Arbitration". At that point, Blizzard pays for an arbitrator in "Your Area" to hear the case. There are no legal fees. This is what you agree to every time you click I Agree on patch day. In the End, the arbitrator is a neutral 3rd party. At the end of the day, I will do whatever I need to do to prove they are wrong. I was not botting, buying gold or anything else. The only thing I did was buy herbs from a seller in /trade.

This bothers me every time i see it...
What if that applied to something else, say for instance a garage. You go there with your car, pay them to fix it, they dont fix your car and just sell it to someone else. Even if they have a "EULA" at the garage saying they can do this, it is still against the law to do so. The law > any EULA.
Blizzard took his money when he bought the game and the monthly subscription fee. It's stealing when they ban his account for no reason.

Just to clear it up a little bit more; i'm not saying he got banned for no good reason, i'm just saying that blizzard has no right to just ban someone for whatever reason, it's stealing.

The correct analogy there would be that you were RENTing a car, you took it back to the car rental place because there was a problem with it...and they didn't give it back. It belongs to them, you pay them to use it.

Most people are ignorant of the rights they hold. Most players still have not read the EULA. Most don't know that if you have any issue with Blizzard and it is not handled to your satisfaction, you have legal rights at your disposal. All it took was one call to Activision/Blizzard and asked for the Legal Department. I received a return call from Rod Rigole with in 1hour. Per the EULA you must inform Blizzard's Legal Department and give notice to seek "Informal Negotiations". These can not last more than 30days. If you still haven't reached an amicable resolution, the next step is "Binding Arbitration". At that point, Blizzard pays for an arbitrator in "Your Area" to hear the case. There are no legal fees. This is what you agree to every time you click I Agree on patch day. In the End, the arbitrator is a neutral 3rd party. At the end of the day, I will do whatever I need to do to prove they are wrong. I was not botting, buying gold or anything else. The only thing I did was buy herbs from a seller in /trade.

You honestly believe this guy would contact you? You aren't going to win even if you sue Blizzard.

Most people are ignorant of the rights they hold. Most players still have not read the EULA. Most don't know that if you have any issue with Blizzard and it is not handled to your satisfaction, you have legal rights at your disposal. All it took was one call to Activision/Blizzard and asked for the Legal Department. I received a return call from Rod Rigole with in 1hour. Per the EULA you must inform Blizzard's Legal Department and give notice to seek "Informal Negotiations". These can not last more than 30days. If you still haven't reached an amicable resolution, the next step is "Binding Arbitration". At that point, Blizzard pays for an arbitrator in "Your Area" to hear the case. There are no legal fees. This is what you agree to every time you click I Agree on patch day. In the End, the arbitrator is a neutral 3rd party. At the end of the day, I will do whatever I need to do to prove they are wrong. I was not botting, buying gold or anything else. The only thing I did was buy herbs from a seller in /trade.

there has to be something you arent telling us because like i said ive had friends where similar things have happened to them all they had to do was call blizzard and blizzard sorted it out and turned back on their accounts. O-O

if you called blizzard and they DIDNT turn back on your account and denied you then that means they had to have found something to ban you

"I was a normal baby for 30 seconds, then ninjas stole my mamma" - Deadpool
"so what do we do?" "well jack, you stand there and say 'gee rocket raccoon I'm so glad you brought that Unfeasibly large cannon with you..' and i go like this BRAKKA BRAKKA BRAKKA" - Rocket Raccoon

Pro tip op. All lawyers have secretaries. Hell when I worked for clear channel as a talent buyer we had secretaries. You do not just fucking call someone at a huge cooperation

OP-"FUCKING BLIZZARD BANNING ME FOR WANTING TO SAVE A COUPLE GOLD! WHERES THAT NUMBER!"OP feverishly mashing keys looking for Blizzard CS
OP-"AHA! I FOUND IT! YE SHALL FEEL THE MIGHTY WRATH OF THROGAR BLIZZARD! NOBODY MESSES WITH ME!"Op calls Blizzard CS demanding to speak to a "manager"
OP-"Um, hello? Yes. I have just been banned, and I haven't done anything wrong. I have to play. WoW is life for me. Please unbar? I sorry."
Blizzard CS-"We're sorry Throgar but this is the 12th time you have been caught using speed hacks in AV. You've been warned, and continued to do it."
OP-"ROOOOOAAARRRR!!! NOBODY THREATENS THE MIGHTY THROGAR LIKE THIS!!! I WILL HAVE SOME HEDZ! YE SHALL ALL PERISH BENEATH MY BLADE."
Blizzard CS-"Is there anything else I can help you with sir?"
OP-"I HAVE THE BEST ATTORNEY MONEY CAN BUY! AND YOU SHALL HEAR FROM ME SOON! I AM GOING TO THE FORUMS!!!!"Op runs to mmo champ looking for moral support

Except if you read, Blizzard hasn't. He is accusing them of Bullying them and that is clearly not the case and I love how you use ad homieum in your argument via Logical Fallacy. Nobody is insinuating Blizzard can do no wrong in this thread. I think it's painfully obvious you have some hate towards Blizzard.

And its painfully obvious your talking out your arse again. I dont have hate towards Blizz otherwise I wouldnt have bothered paying ungodly amounts on sub fees over the years. I very strongly dislike it when companies dont treat their playerbase with respect. As per usual though, say a word against a gaming company and ye' best prepare yourself for the onslaught that follows. Read the thread its full of sarcastic comments.

So I told Mr. Rigole that I wanted to move forward with "informal negotiations", which is what Blizzards EULA requires.. So he tells me and I quote" You might not want to do that because there could be other outcomes you would not like". Are you kidding me. I mean seriously, the most you can do is ban my other accounts. Who cares.. Here is the what I sent them Blizzard can threaten and bully all they like. They can do nothing to me except take away a game I probably need to quit playing anyway.

I'm just going to say that the attorney is probably right and you're being way too over dramatic to construe this as a threat. I mean I haven't read the EULA but there are things that are pretty standard in these types of contracts. For example, let's say your case is pretty weak and you decide to go to this arbitration. Well shit, you gotta pay an attorney to represent you which costs a lot for you for no real gain. But hey, you can go without an attorney right? Let's further assume that the case against you is still weak and you have no skills as an expert negotiator as the representative Blizzard will probably send out. Furthermore, let's say you loose; it wouldn't surprise me at all if the contract in question had an attorney fee shifting provision - meaning if you loose you have to pay Blizzard's attorney for wasting their time in this completely ridiculous 'case.'

All I'm saying, is that maybe in reality the attorney (although he obviously doesn't represent you) was giving you good advice and this wasn't some evil threat from the corporate fat cat's attorney. Chill out, you got banned and probably deserved it. It will cost you less just to get another account if you want to continue playing rather than taking on Blizzard's legal house.